CFDB Plugin

This page is a continuation of documentation of the “filter” attribute of shortcodes. First see this page.

Identifying Logged-in User

If the user is logged in when viewing the page with the shortcode, you can try to match a filter value against some user information. If the user was logged in when he submitted the form, then ‘Submitted Login’ will be captured (since version 1.4.4) So if the user is also logged in to view a page with this shortcode, you could have the table filter to show him only his submissions using:

• [cfdb-table form="your-form" filter="Submitted Login=$user_login"]

Similarly, if the user entered his email in a form field, (say “email”), and perhaps was not logged in but entered the same email address as is associated with his WordPress account, then later came back to view a page when logged in, you could show him his entry using:

• [cfdb-table form="your-form" filter="email=$user_email"]

All of the following variables are supported

• $user_login
• $user_email
• $first_name or $user_firstname
• $last_name or $user_lastname
• $user_nicename
• $id or $ID

Using HTTP GET, POST and COOKIE variables

When viewing a page or post, you can add HTTP GET parameters on the URL, for example the URL to view post #85 might be:

• http://mywordpress.com/?p=85

to which you could add some arbitrary parameter:

• http://mywordpress.com/?p=85&email=joe@nowhere.com

in this case you might want to use that email=joe@nowhere.com in the shortcode filter. Assuming the table you are querying has a field named ‘contact_email’, you could use the shortcode:

• [cfdb-table form="your-form" filter="contact_email=$_GET(email)"] This looks for form submissions where the submitted value for the form’s contact_email field is equal to joe@nowhere.com.

This syntax can be used:

• $_GET(http_get_parameter) for URL parameters as described above or forms posting to the page on which the shortcode is located, where the form uses method=GET
• $_POST(http_post_parameter) for forms posting to the page on which the shortcode is located, where the form uses method=POST
• $_COOKIE(http_cookie_name) to reference Cookies.

WARNING PHP programmers: note the syntax and don’t get confused with similar PHP syntax:

• $_GET(value) not $_GET['value']
• $_POST(value) not $_POST['value']
• $_COOKIE(value) not $_COOKIE['value']

Summary of differences from PHP syntax:

• Parentheses are used instead of square brackets because the shortcode already has brackets and we can’t nest them within it.
• Quoting ‘value’ is not necessary since you are already quoting the shortcode attribute, and this would result in nested quotes.

Problems when using $_GET

1. ‘name’ Issue

Avoid using 'name' as a GET parameter. This example will not work:

• http://mywordpress.com/?page_id=128&name=admin WILL NOT WORK!!

this gives you a page with the error:

• Apologies, but the page you requested could not be found. Perhaps searching will help.

The problem is with using name. Use something else, like name1 and use $_GET(name1) in your filter. In WordPress, your URL does not go directly to the page, it goes to http://mywordpress.com/ in this example and that takes the parameters and dispatches it to the appropriate page/post etc. So you have to choose GET parameters names that do not conflict with those that WordPress uses. “name” is such a conflict. I don’t a list of all conflicts, but look for the above error.

2. Using a Form with method=”GET” to post to your page with table

Imagine this scenario:

• (start) You create a page with a form on it where users input parameters
• (end) That form posts to another page (or same page) that has a shortcode using $_GET in the filter

If the URL to your end page already has a URL parameter in it, then you need to add it to your form as a hidden field. For example, your end page URL is http://mysite.com/?p=246

Then on your start page, you need to add that “p” as a hidden parameter, for example:

Using GET: start page:

<form action="http://mysite.com/" method="GET">
<input type="hidden" name="p" value="246/>
Field1: <input name="f1"/> <br/>
Field2: <input name="f2"/> <br/>
<input type="submit"/>
</form>

Using GET: end page

[cfdb-datatable form="myform" filter="Field1=$_GET(f1)&&Field2=$_GET(f2)"]

But if you use “POST”, then you don’t have this problem:

Using POST: start page:

Note the p=246 is in the action URL, unlike the “GET” example.
<form action="http://mysite.com/?p=246" method="POST">
Field1: <input name="f1"/> <br/>
Field2: <input name="f2"/> <br/>
<input type="submit"/>
</form>

Using POST: end page:

[cfdb-datatable form="myform" filter="Field1=$_POST(f1)&&Field2=$_POST(f2)"]